Articles/Interviews
Return to ListingOLIVER REED TALKS FRANKLY ABOUT... THE GREATEST LOVE OF MY LIFE
OLIVER REED is not a "punchy, boozy ram." Who says so? Oliver Reed. The screen tough guy added: "I've had a few skirmishes like everybody else, but I got all my scars through other people punching me more times than I punched them."
"I've had a few arrests like everybody else. I've had a few birds like everybody else," he went on. "The trouble is, because I'm an actor all I need do is go into a restaurant with my child's nanny in Italy and people will say I'm having an outrageous affair."
"All I've got to do is be without the woman I live with and they say I've had a row. What am I supposed to do, except make noises?"
Olly, Britain's hottest screen property, went on: "I would not work as regularly as I do had I perpetuated my image on the set. I'm always on time. I always know my lines. I do a good job and I'm never drunk."
"When I'm home on one of my rare holidays I go to my local boozer, jump in the pool and nearly break my back lifting anvils. But my real skirmishes are abroad when people try to knock true blues."
Last summer while filming The Three Musketeers in Spain Olly appeared before a magistrate after being ordered to leave a hotel after a rowdy midnight incident in which tables were knocked over.
True blue
At his magnificent country home near Dorking, Surrey, where he keeps a Union Jack in his library, the 35-year-old superstar said: "The greatest love of my life is England." "I'm true blue - that's why I have a Union Jack. Very few men have a Union Jack in their library. Few men have a library. Very few men go to prison because they're true blue, and hit punchy tourists." "I said, 'I'm true blue'-then nailed a couple of Americans. After I'd been in the nick and I was up before the judge, I explained that I was Athos, one of the three Musketeers." "But every time I lifted my hand to try and demonstrate the fact that I was a Musketeer, I was leapt on by 15-year-old children dressed as policemen." Olly describes himself as a "staunch Conservative and royalist." Would he ever consider standing for Parliament? He nodded. "If the time ever arose when the unions were infiltrated by large numbers of Communists I would certainly stand and warn people of the dangers of Communism. I've worked in Communist countries and I know that sort of thing does not work." Olly, looking very much the country squire in riding boots and casual gear, proudly shows guests round the Reed residence, Broome Hall, a former monastery overlooking the rolling Surrey downs. "Contrary to what people suppose," he said, "my real interest now is the renovation of the house and keeping horses, butterflies, toads, birds, fish and dogs." He has eight brood-mares, four fillies and two colts. His ambition is to breed a jumping horse that will win the famous Hickstead and Badminton events. Olly said: "You must handle horses a lot, use your leg on them, kick 'em on - and they're as good as gold. That's the way you get a great performance out of an animal - and out of a woman." "Women?" Olly smiled wickedly. "They're extraordinary." "People have talked to me about them over the past few years because they are concerned that society is changing. Everybody's becoming either homosexual or lesbian and it's not an easy way out." "Today an adolescent child sees homosexual men running around with pistols on television pretending to be butch, or a lot of bull dykes with black mascara over their eyes belting out numbers like an old folk singer or music hall artist." "People say, 'That's not what our life or sexuality is about' and I'm asked to answer a Yugoslavian baker who said he has made love to 4,320 women. I reply I'll form a team to beat the record and keep the score in my boozer." No humour
"Immediately all the women's liberationists say I'm an arrogant bastard. They have no sense of humour." "If nobody has the sense of the ridiculous then there's no way you're going to get pillow talk. And when it comes to sexuality the most important facet is pillow talk - the moments of repose." Was he surprised at the impact he has on many women? "One of my greatest failings is my inability to recognise a good situation when it arrives," he said. Some women have told me, 'You could have laid me on the first night.' Instead, I never know it and it takes me six months." Ask Olly if he is a good lover and he says: "I think I would have been until I realised that women are liars." "One of their great cries is, 'More, more, more. You're so good'. Then after saying things like, 'I'd love another large gin and tonic' they'd go and be sick in the toilet and I realised that they lied about most things, including my facility to be another Casanova." Soon Olly is to turn producer and will team up again with Ken Russell, who directed him in The Devils and Women In Love, in which he wrestled in the nude with Alan Bates. Olly will also star in the film, which is about the downfall of an Army major. He explained: "If I employed an actor of my so-called status I'd have to pay the salary I demand - and I can't afford it!" Olly, who admits to being terrified of growing old, is 35 - the age at which, he once said, he'd retire. "When I said that," he explained, "I wasn't divorced and my ex-wife (Irish model Katie Byrne) doesn't like me talking about the settlement I made or how much alimony I pay. Also, I wasn't employing a large staff, as I do now." Devoted father
Eventually he hopes to produce films of children's stories like Winnie The Pooh. "Walt Disney did Pooh in ridiculous cartoon terms with American voices," he said. A devoted father, Olly has two children: Mark, 12, by his marriage, and Sarah, three, by Jackie Daryl, the South African born ex-ballet dancer with whom he lives. He says of Jackie: "I have been very frank with her for a long time. I get on very well with her and we're very happy together." Finally, Olly on Olly: "I'm getting uglier, but, thank God, I'm getting richer."
Douglas Marlborough, Titbits, November 1973
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At his magnificent country home near Dorking, Surrey, where he keeps a Union Jack in his library, the 35-year-old superstar said: "The greatest love of my life is England." "I'm true blue - that's why I have a Union Jack. Very few men have a Union Jack in their library. Few men have a library. Very few men go to prison because they're true blue, and hit punchy tourists." "I said, 'I'm true blue'-then nailed a couple of Americans. After I'd been in the nick and I was up before the judge, I explained that I was Athos, one of the three Musketeers." "But every time I lifted my hand to try and demonstrate the fact that I was a Musketeer, I was leapt on by 15-year-old children dressed as policemen." Olly describes himself as a "staunch Conservative and royalist." Would he ever consider standing for Parliament? He nodded. "If the time ever arose when the unions were infiltrated by large numbers of Communists I would certainly stand and warn people of the dangers of Communism. I've worked in Communist countries and I know that sort of thing does not work." Olly, looking very much the country squire in riding boots and casual gear, proudly shows guests round the Reed residence, Broome Hall, a former monastery overlooking the rolling Surrey downs. "Contrary to what people suppose," he said, "my real interest now is the renovation of the house and keeping horses, butterflies, toads, birds, fish and dogs." He has eight brood-mares, four fillies and two colts. His ambition is to breed a jumping horse that will win the famous Hickstead and Badminton events. Olly said: "You must handle horses a lot, use your leg on them, kick 'em on - and they're as good as gold. That's the way you get a great performance out of an animal - and out of a woman." "Women?" Olly smiled wickedly. "They're extraordinary." "People have talked to me about them over the past few years because they are concerned that society is changing. Everybody's becoming either homosexual or lesbian and it's not an easy way out." "Today an adolescent child sees homosexual men running around with pistols on television pretending to be butch, or a lot of bull dykes with black mascara over their eyes belting out numbers like an old folk singer or music hall artist." "People say, 'That's not what our life or sexuality is about' and I'm asked to answer a Yugoslavian baker who said he has made love to 4,320 women. I reply I'll form a team to beat the record and keep the score in my boozer." No humour
"Immediately all the women's liberationists say I'm an arrogant bastard. They have no sense of humour." "If nobody has the sense of the ridiculous then there's no way you're going to get pillow talk. And when it comes to sexuality the most important facet is pillow talk - the moments of repose." Was he surprised at the impact he has on many women? "One of my greatest failings is my inability to recognise a good situation when it arrives," he said. Some women have told me, 'You could have laid me on the first night.' Instead, I never know it and it takes me six months." Ask Olly if he is a good lover and he says: "I think I would have been until I realised that women are liars." "One of their great cries is, 'More, more, more. You're so good'. Then after saying things like, 'I'd love another large gin and tonic' they'd go and be sick in the toilet and I realised that they lied about most things, including my facility to be another Casanova." Soon Olly is to turn producer and will team up again with Ken Russell, who directed him in The Devils and Women In Love, in which he wrestled in the nude with Alan Bates. Olly will also star in the film, which is about the downfall of an Army major. He explained: "If I employed an actor of my so-called status I'd have to pay the salary I demand - and I can't afford it!" Olly, who admits to being terrified of growing old, is 35 - the age at which, he once said, he'd retire. "When I said that," he explained, "I wasn't divorced and my ex-wife (Irish model Katie Byrne) doesn't like me talking about the settlement I made or how much alimony I pay. Also, I wasn't employing a large staff, as I do now." Devoted father
Eventually he hopes to produce films of children's stories like Winnie The Pooh. "Walt Disney did Pooh in ridiculous cartoon terms with American voices," he said. A devoted father, Olly has two children: Mark, 12, by his marriage, and Sarah, three, by Jackie Daryl, the South African born ex-ballet dancer with whom he lives. He says of Jackie: "I have been very frank with her for a long time. I get on very well with her and we're very happy together." Finally, Olly on Olly: "I'm getting uglier, but, thank God, I'm getting richer."